IAG member British Airways is currently annoying the most loyal customers, because without prior information, the Avios required for free flights have been increased. All variants in which taxes and fees are paid are affected.

In the IAG customer loyalty program, passengers have the option of redeeming their collected Avios for free flights. Depending on how many bonus points are used, the lower the additional payment. What remains unchanged is the full payment with Avios, which is, however, rather unpopular with clever frequent flyers. Regardless of how much is to be paid, British Airways is now asking 750 Avios more.

According to the Loyalty Lobby portal, this change was introduced surprisingly and without prior information to the participants in the frequent flyer program. Therefore, the technical side speculates that the group wants to push full payment with Avios. This assumption is not unreasonable, because the IAG has to set up high reserves for the customer loyalty program.

Due to the corona pandemic, relatively few Avios were redeemed for free flights. This is a small but fine problem, as a lot of money has to be "bunkered" in the area of ​​the frequent flyer program, but can only be "shifted" when booking tickets to the group airlines.